"What we wanted to do was to play up the real world within the language of glamour," Wiley says. "I wanted to have a reprise of that moment, to go back to this idea of fashion and art having something in common, the idea that fashion could change the perception of an individual."

I am dead, gone, in the casket, lowered into the ground, being eaten by maggots, slightly decomposing, after seeing the gorgeous Kehinde Wiley spread in this week's issue of New York. There are ten portraits of his "muses" in gowns from Valentino, Michael Kors, Giorgio Armani, and others, as part of his new retrospective [...]

The women the champagne coupe origin stories are ascribed to are themselves tied together with certain common threads. They all were lovers of powerful men, and primarily defined by those associations. Portraits show their breasts as uniformly small, round, and lily-white; their intricate corsetry and aristocratic toilette likely kept their décolletage supple and firm, looking ornamental and smelling sweet. As with most rumors, the speculation about these women's roles as drinking-vessel models (which was rampant—an English-language account of Madame du Barry's journals published in her lifetime mentions that the rumor "profoundly scandalized the palace's residents and regular visitors") wasn't merely innocuous chatter from spiteful ladies-in-waiting and scornful subjects. Rather, it [...]

Did you ever watch Work of Art, that weird Bravo reality show that was a cross between America's Next Top Model and finals period at every art institute in the world? Essentially, at the end of every episode, the assorted artists were supposed to create an artistic masterpiece inspired by that episode's theme; it was a ludicrous plot line, not nearly as decadent as its fashion-driven predecessors, and the show was cancelled after two seasons. I loved every minute of it.

From that show, though, I was introduced to New York's art critic Jerry Saltz, solely referred to on the show as "Art-Critic-Jerry-Saltz," one of the best critics in the [...]

This is FAST Corp. — the acronym stands for Fiberglass Animals, Shapes, and Trademarks — one of the country’s most intriguing and entertaining niche manufacturers. FAST uses these molds to cast large fiberglass statues that have become icons of roadside Americana. If you’ve ever seen a big steer perched atop a steakhouse, a giant soft-serve cone in front of an ice cream stand, or a Bob's Big Boy statue, FAST probably made it.

Have you been haunted by the dark, glassy eyes of Bob's Big Boy, a friendly oversized cow, or LITERALLY ANY OTHER PIECE OF ROADSIDE AMERICANA, and are wondering where not to go so you can avoid them? Paul Lukas[...]